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Cancer Cell International logoLink to Cancer Cell International
. 2020 Mar 12;20:76. doi: 10.1186/s12935-019-1092-7

RETRACTED ARTICLE: MicroRNA-93-5p promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in gastric cancer by repressing tumor suppressor AHNAK expression

Erdong Shen 1,2, Xin Wang 1, Xin Liu 1, Mingyue Lv 1, Liang Zhang 3, Guolian Zhu 4, Zhe Sun 1,✉
PMCID: PMC7066804  PMID: 32190000

Abstract

Background

Gastric cancer (GC) is a common cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, and microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play an important role in GC development. This study aims to explore the effect of microRNA-93-5p (miR-93-5p) on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in GC, via AHNAK and the Wnt signaling pathway.

Methods

Microarray-based gene expression analysis was performed to identify GC-related differentially expressed miRNAs and genes. Then the expression of the miR-93-5p was examined in GC tissues and GC cell lines. The targeting relationship between miR-93-5p and AHNAK was verified by a dual luciferase reporter gene assay. In an attempt to ascertain the contributory role of miR-93-5p in GC, miR-93-5p mimic or inhibitor, as well as an AHNAK overexpression vector, were introduced to HGC-27 cells. HGC-27 cell migration and invasive ability, and EMT were assayed using Transwell assay and western blot analysis. Regulation of the Wnt signaling pathway was also assessed using TOP/FOP flash luciferase assay.

Results

miR-93-5p was highly expressed in GC tissue samples and cells. Notably, miR-93-5p could target and negatively regulate AHNAK. Down-regulation of miR-93-5p or overexpression of AHNAK could suppress the migration and invasion abilities, in addition to EMT in GC cells via inactivation of the Wnt signaling pathway.

Conclusion

Taken together, downregulation of miR-93-5p attenuated GC development via the Wnt signaling pathway by targeting AHNAK. These findings provide an enhanced understanding of miR-93-5p as a therapeutic target for GC treatment.

Keywords: Gastric cancer, MicroRNA-93-5p, AHNAK, Wnt signaling pathway, Epithelial–mesenchymal transition, Migration, Invasion

Background

Gastric cancer (GC) is a highly prevalent malignancy that ranks as the second common cause of cancer-related death in the world [1]. GC also presents as the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause in relation to cancer mortality in China [2]. GC is likely to be cured if diagnosed at an early stage however, the prognosis for advanced stage GC, which presents with extensive invasion and metastasis, is still poor [3]. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) represents a cell transition process where epithelial cells lose cell–cell adhesion properties and obtain motive capabilities. EMT is a critical event in the malignancy of cancer cells and leads to invasion and metastasis of multiple cancer cells [4]. Also, EMT has been demonstrated to be closely associated with gastric cancer initiation and progression [5]. In the process of the metastasis and invasion of GC cells, epithelial factors, such as E-cadherin are absent, while the expression of mesenchymal markers, including Snail, N-cadherin and β-catenin is elevated [6]. Thus, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the EMT in GC progression.

Many non-coding genes, including microRNAs (miRNAs), have been determined to regulate gastric cancer progression. miRNAs, a group of evolutionarily conserved small non-coding RNA molecules, regulate gene expression by binding to the untranslated region (UTR) of target mRNAs, and ultimately affect important biological processes such as proliferation, apoptosis, or differentiation [7, 8]. In this study, GC-related differentially expressed miRNAs were screened according to microarray data analysis, which identified microRNA-93-5p (miR-93-5p) as the study focus. Indeed, a previous study reported that overexpression of miR-93-5p promotes GC cell migration and invasion and leads to poor survival of GC patients [9]. We also conducted a bioinformatics analysis and a dual luciferase reporter gene assay and verified that AHNAK is the target gene of miR-93-5p. AHNAK is a large scaffolding protein, which was identified to also act as a tumor suppressor and is highly related to tumor metastasis [10]. It has been suggested that AHNAK plays an inhibitor role in migration and invasion as well as EMT in cancer [11]. As a tumor suppressor, AHNAK has also been reported to negatively regulate triple-negative breast cancer cell proliferation through different signaling pathways, including the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway [12]. Canonical Wnt signal with β-catenin as a signal transducer is not only involved in embryonic development but was also found to modulate malignancy homeostasis, leading to cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis [13]. Furthermore, it was verified that the activation of Wnt signaling pathway could promote EMT in GC [14]. Therefore, we hypothesized that miR-93-5p may be involved in migration and invasion and EMT of GC cells and further explored the mechanism involving AHNAK as well as downstream Wnt signaling pathway.

Materials and methods

Ethics statement

The study protocol was approved by the ethics committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. All patients provided written informed consents.

GC-related miRNA and mRNA prediction

The gene expression omnibus (GEO) database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) was used to search for GC-associated miRNA and mRNA expression datasets. The R language “limma” package was used for differential expression analysis, and the heat map and volcano map of differentially expressed genes were constructed with |log fold changed (FC)| > 2 and p value < 0.05 as the screening standard. The target gene of miR-93-5p was predicted using the TargetScan database (http://www.targetscan.org/vert_71/), and the Venn diagram (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/Venn/) was used to construct a Venn map of miRNA and intersected target gene. The expression of AHNAK in GC samples of the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database was searched using the UALCAN database (http://ualcan.path.uab.edu/analysis.html).

Subjects and sample collection

In this study, GC tissue and adjacent tissue from 95 patients with GC who received radical gastrectomy at First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University were collected from January 2012 to December 2013. The patients did not receive any chemotherapy or radiotherapy before surgery. All cases were independently diagnosed histologically by two experienced pathologists. Clinical data such as patient name, gender, age, surgical record, pathological number, and pathological report were collected. Analysis was conducted using the collected clinical data, including the depth of invasion (T1 + T2 + T3 and T4), lymph node metastasis (N0/N1/N2/N3, TNM stage I/II/), histological classification (G1/2/3/4) and vascular tumors (negative/positive), in which TNM staging was assessed in accordance with the seventh edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Cancer Staging Manual.

Cell grouping and transfection

Four human GC cell lines SUN-216 (CBP60503, culture condition: RPMI-1640 + 10% FBS), BGC-823 (CBP60477, culture condition: RPMI 1640 (w/o Hepes) + 10% FBS), MKN74 (CBP60490, culture condition: RPMI-1640 + 10% FBS) and HGC-27 (CBP60480, culture condition: MEM + 1%NEAA + 10% FBS) and human gastric epithelial cells GES-1 (CBP60512) were purchased from Nanjing Cobioer Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Nanjing, China). Cells were assigned into the following groups: inhibitor-negative control (NC) group (cells treated with inhibitor-NC vector, purchased from Guangzhou RiboBio Biotechnology Company, Guangzhou, China), miR-93-5p inhibitor group (cells treated with miR-93-5p inhibitor vector), Empty vector group (cells treated with pCDH vector), AHNAK group (cells treated with pCDH-AHNAK vector), miR-93-5p mimic + Empty vector (cells treated with miR-93-5p mimic + pCDH vector), miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK (cells treated with miR-93-5p mimic + pCDH-AHNAK-vector), miR-93-5p mimic + DMSO group (cells treated with miR-93-5p mimic + Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) vector), and miR-93-5p mimic + DKK1 (cells treated with miR-93-5p mimic + Wnt signaling pathway inhibitor DKK1 vector).

RNA isolation and quantification

Total RNA was extracted from tissue or cells using Trizol reagent (15596026, Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Then the integrity of RNA was tested via 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and RNA concentration and purity were measured using a Nano-Drop ND-1000 spectrophotometer. RNA was reversely transcribed into cDNA according to the reverse transcription kit instructions (purchased from Beijing TransGen Biotech Co., Ltd., Beijing, China). Primers of miR-93-5p, AHNAK, U6 and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were synthesized by Shanghai Sangon Biological Engineering Technology & Services Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) (Table 1). mRNA reverse transcription was carried out according to the instructions of EasyScript First-Strand cDNA Synthesis SuperMix (Beijing TransGen Biotech Co., Ltd., Beijing, China). The reaction solution was subjected to real-time PCR according to the instructions of the SYBR® Premix Ex Taq™ II Kit (Takara Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Dalian, China). Next, the reaction solution was subjected to real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR according to the specification of All-in-One™ miRNA qPCR Kit (AMPR-0200, GeneCopoeia, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China). Real-time quantitative RT-PCR was performed on an ABI7500 quantitative PCR instrument (ABI Company, Oyster Bay, NY, USA). U6 was used as an internal reference for the relative expression of miR-93-5p, and GAPDH for the relative expression of AHNAK. 2-ΔΔCt represents the ratio of the expression of the target gene in the experimental group and the control group, and the formula is as follows: ΔCt = CT (target gene) − CT (internal reference), ΔΔCT = ΔCt experimental group − ΔCt control group. Ct is the number of cycles of amplification that occurs when the real-time fluorescence intensity of the reaction reaches a set threshold, at which point the amplification is logarithmic [15].

Table 1.

Primer sequences for quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

Gene Primer sequences
miR-93-5p Forward: 5′-GCCGCCAAAGTGCTGTTC-3′
Reverse: 5′-CAGAGCAGGGTCCGAGGTA-3′
AHNAK Forward: 5′-ATGCTCCAGGGCTCAACCT-3′
Reverse: 5′-CGTGCCCCAACGTTAAGCTT-3′
U6 Forward: 5′-CAGCACATATACTAAAATTGGAACG-3′
Reverse: 5′-ACGAATTTGCGTGTCATCC-3′
GAPDH Forward: 5′-CGGATTTGGTCGTATTGGG-3′
Reverse: 5′-TGCTGGAAGATGGTGATGGATT-3′
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miR-93-5p microRNA-93-5p, GAPHD glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

Western blot analysis

Total protein from tissues and cells was extracted and the protein concentration was determined by using a bicinchoninic acid (BCA) kit (20201ES76, Shanghai Yeasen Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China). Protein sample (30 μg) in each well was loaded. The protein was separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and transferred to a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane by wet transfer method. After that, the membrane was blocked 1 h at room temperature with 5% bovine serum albumin (BSA) and then incubated with primary antibodies: rabbit polyclonal antibody to Wnt1 (1:25, ab15251), rabbit polyclonal antibody to phosphorylated β-catenin (p-β-catenin) (1:500, ab27798), murine monoclonal antibody to E-Cadherin (1:1000, ab76055), rabbit polyclonal antibody to SNAIL (1:2000, ab180714), murine monoclonal antibody to Vimentin (1:1000, ab20346), rabbit monoclonal antibody to β-catenin (1:5000, ab32572) murine monoclonal antibody to AHNAK (1:500, ab68556), rabbit antibody to Kremen (1:500, ab156007), rabbit antibody to LRP5 (1:500, ab38311), rabbit antibody to LRP6 (1:1000, ab134146), and rabbit antibody to Axin2 (1:500, ab32197) (all from Abcam, Cambridge, UK) at 4 °C overnight. After being washed 3 times with Tris-buffered saline with Tween (TBST) (5 min each time), the membranes were incubated with corresponding secondary antibody for 1 h at room temperature. The membranes were then developed with chemiluminescent reagent. GAPDH was used as an internal reference. The images were visualized using a Bio-Rad image analysis system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Hercules, CA, USA). The target band was analyzed using the Image J software.

Dual luciferase reporter gene assay

Target gene analysis of miR-93-5p was performed using the biological prediction website (http://www.targetscan.org/vert_71). A dual luciferase reporter gene assay was used to verify whether AHNAK was a direct target gene of miR-93-5p. Primers were designed and 3′untranslated region (UTR) sequence of AHNAK gene was amplified and ligated with psiCHECK2 vector to obtain dual luciferase report vectors, named wild type (WT). The miR-93-5p seed sequence and the mutant primers of AHNAK 3′UTR binding region were designed. With the 3′UTR fragment of the AHNAK gene as a template, the forward and reverse fragments of the 3′UTR of the AHNAK gene were obtained after amplification by PCR, from which fragment containing mutant binding site was obtained by PCR. The mutation report vector of AHNAK target site was obtained by ligating of cleavage sites with the psiCHECK2 vector, which was named mutant type (MUT). The correctly sequenced WT and MUT were separately co-transfected with miR-93-5p into HEK-293T cells (Shanghai Beinuo Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China). After 48 h of transfection, cells were harvested and lysed. Luciferase activity change caused by miR-93-5p on AHNAK 3′UTR was measured in the cells according to the method provided by Genecopoeia’s dual luciferase assay kit. The luciferase intensity was measured using a Promega Glomax 20/20 luminometer fluorescence detector.

Transwell assay

Matrigel (356234, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) was thawed overnight at 4 °C and diluted with pre-cooled serum-free RPMI-1640 medium (4 °C) to a final concentration of 1 mg/mL (the above operations were performed on ice). Next, the diluted Matrigel was used to coat the apical chamber of the Transwell, followed by incubation at 37 °C for 4 h. After transfection for 48 h, the cells were suspended in serum-free Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) with a density of 1 × 106 cells/mL. The basolateral chamber was added with 700 μL of DMEM containing 10% FBS. The apical chamber was added with the cell suspension and incubated for 24 h. The chamber was fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 30 min at room temperature and stained with 0.05% crystal violet for 30 min at room temperature. After that, cells were counted under an inverted microscope in 10 randomly chosen fields.

The Transwell chamber was placed in a 24-well cell culture plate with Matrigel (2 μg/μL) coated on the polycarbonate membrane of each apical chamber. 600 μL of RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% FBS was added to the basolateral chamber. The cell suspensions with adjusted cell density in each group were added to the apical chamber with 5 × 104 cells per chamber, followed by incubation at 37 °C for 36 h. Four parallel samples were set for each group. The cells on the basolateral chamber were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 30 min, stained with 0.1% crystal violet for 20 min at room temperature. After air-drying, cells were observed and photographed using an optical microscope. Cells were counted and observed in 5 randomly chosen fields, and the average value was calculated.

Morphological observation of cells

Cells at a density of 2 × 104 cells/well were inoculated in a six-well plate 1 day in advance. Cells were cultured in DMEM medium containing 5% serum. Then, the morphological characteristics of cells in each group were observed under an inverted microscope the next day.

Immunofluorescence

The transfected cells were conventionally treated, counted and allowed to grow on cell slides for 24 h. Then, the slides were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for 15 min, blocked with normal goat serum at room temperature for 30 min, and then incubated with diluted primary antibody at 4 °C overnight. Following this, the cells were incubated with diluted fluorescent secondary antibody at 20–37 °C for 1 h. Afterwards, the cells were incubated in dark with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) to counterstain the nucleus. The slides were sealed with mounting medium containing fluorescence quenching agent. The images were acquired under a fluorescence microscope.

TOP flash/FOP flash reporter assay

One day before transfection, cells were seeded in 24-well plates (5 × 104 cells/well) and cultured for 24 h. Subsequently, 1000 ng TOP flash (or FOP flash) plasmid and 100 ng internal reference plasmid (Renilla) were co-transfected with transfection reagent Fu GENE6 or Lipofect2000 for 24 h. The cells were then divided into 9 groups: blank group, inhibitor NC group, miR-93-5p inhibitor group, empty vector group, AHNAK group, miR-93-5p mimic + empty vector group, miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK group, miR-93-5p mimic + DMSO group and miR-93-5p mimic + DKK1 group, followed by incubation for 24 h. The cells were seeded in an opaque 96-well plate. The activity of firefly luciferase and Renilla luciferase was determined according to the instructions of dual-glo luciferase assay system test kit (E2920, Promega Corporation, Madison, WI, USA). The activity ratio between firefly luciferase and Renilla luciferase was calculated.

Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 21.0 (IBM Corp. Armonk, NY, USA). All data were examined for normal distribution and homogeneity of variance. The data with normal distribution were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, and those with skew distribution or unequal variances were expressed by interquartile range. The expression of miR-93-5p in the GC tissues and adjacent tissues was analyzed by unpaired t test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to obtain the cutoff value of miR-93-5p expression, and Kaplan–meier was used to analyze the effect of high or low expression of miR-93-5p on the survival of GC patients. Comparisons among multiple groups were assessed using one-way analysis of variance, in which the post hoc test was used for pairwise comparison. The repeated-measures analysis of variance was applied for the comparison of data at different time points. All data with skew distribution were tested using a nonparametric rank sum test. The difference was statistically significant at p < 0.05.

Results

Microarray analysis identifies high expression of miR-93-5p in GC samples

Initially, GEO database was used to retrieve GC related expression datasets and then GSE93415 and GSE78091 expression datasets were selected. The differential expression analysis between the GC samples and the normal samples was performed in the GSE93415 and GSE78091 expression datasets, and finally 76 and 113 differentially expressed miRNAs were obtained respectively. Venn analysis was carried out on the top 20 differentially expressed miRNAs between the two expression datasets to further screen for GC-related miRNAs. A single miRNA was found at the intersection of the two expression datasets, which was miR-93-5p (Fig. 1a). Furthermore, the expression of miR-93-5p was determined in GSE93415 and GSE78091, and it was found in both expression datasets that miR-93-5p was highly expressed in GC samples (Fig. 1b, c). Thus, we focused on miR-93-5p in subsequent experiments in this study.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1

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Microarray analysis identifies the highly expressed miR-93-5p in GC-related samples for this study. a the intersection of differentially expressed miRNAs in GC-related expression datasets. The left circle is the top 20 differentially expressed miRNAs in the GSE93415 expression dataset. The right circle is the top 20 differentially expressed miRNAs in the GSE78091 expression dataset. The middle part indicates the intersection of the two expression datasets. b A heat map of differentially expressed miRNAs in GSE93415 expression dataset. The abscissa indicates the sample number, the ordinate indicates the miRNA name, and the left dendrogram indicates the differentially expressed miRNA expression cluster. Each small square in the Figure indicates the expression of one gene in one sample. The upper right histogram is the color gradation. c The expression of miR-93-5p in the GSE78091 expression dataset, the abscissa indicates the sample type, the ordinate indicates the expression of miR-93-5p in the expression dataset, the p value is in the upper left corner, and the left box diagram indicates the expression of miR-93-5p in the normal sample, and the right box diagram indicates the expression of miR-93-5p in the tumor group

MiR-93-5p expression is up-regulated in GC tissues and GC cell lines

The relative expression of miR-93-5p in GC tissues and adjacent tissues was determined (Fig. 2). The expression of miR-93-5p in GC tissues was much higher compared to adjacent tissues (p < 0.0001) (Fig. 2a). The expression of miR-93-5p was correlated with the pathological stage of the patient’s tumor. The higher TNM stage correlated with higher expression of miR-93-5p in the GC tissues (Fig. 2b, c). According to cutoff value of miR-93-5p set with the average value, miR-93-5p expression was divided into high expression (≥ 2.845) and low expression (< 2.845). The expression of miR-93-5 was associated with overall survival and disease-free survival (DFS), and patients with high expression of miR-93-5p had a poor prognosis (Fig. 2d, e). Meanwhile, miR-93-5p was highly expressed in GC cell lines relative to human gastric epithelial cells GES-1 (Fig. 2f). The highest expression of miR-93-5p was revealed in HGC-27 cell line (p < 0.0001). Thus, the HGC-27 cell line was selected for subsequent experiments. The above results indicate that the expression of miR-93-5p is elevated in GC tissues and GC cell lines.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2

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Up-regulated miR-93-5p expression is determined in GC tissues and GC cell lines. a Expression of miR-93-5p in GC tissues and adjacent tissues of GC patients (n = 95). b, c Expression of miR-93-5p in GC tissues in different pathological stages. d, e The Kaplan–meier survival analysis of overall survival and DFS in GC patients. Green represents patients with high expression of miR-93-5p, blue represents patients with low expression of miR-93-5p. f Expression of miR-93-5p in immortalized human gastric mucosal epithelial cell line and GC cell lines. Data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Student’s t-test was used for comparison between two groups. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparison among multi-groups. The cell experiment was repeated 3 times. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001

Downregulation of miR-93-5p inhibits migration, invasion and EMT of HGC-27 cells

A series of assays including Transwell assays, immunofluorescence assay and Western blot analysis were used to investigate the role of miR-93-5p in HGC-27 cell migration, invasion and EMT. Transwell assay results showed that the migration and invasive abilities of the miR-93-5p inhibitor group were significantly reduced relative to the inhibitor NC group (p = 0.0006 and p = 0.0001, respectively) (Fig. 3a–c).

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

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Repressed miR-93-5p inhibits HGC-27 cell migration, invasion and EMT. a The migration and invasion ability of GC cells determined by Transwell assay (×200). Blank group: HGC-27 cells without transfection of any plasmids; Inhibitor NC group: HGC-27 cells transfected with NC of miR-93-5p; miR-93-5p inhibitor group: HGC-27 cells transfected with miR-93-5p inhibitor. b, c Migration and invasive ability of GC cells determined by the Transwell assays and the quantitative analysis. d Morphological characteristics of HGC-27 cells after transfection with inhibitor NC or miR-93-5p inhibitor (×100). e Immunofluorescence to determine the expression of EMT-related markers (E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail) (×400). f Western blot assay and quantitative analysis for the expression of AHNAK, E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail. Data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparison among multi-groups. The cell experiment was repeated three times. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001

The HGC-27 cell line in the NC inhibitor group showed interstitial morphological characteristics with varying cell size, obvious pleomorphism, larger and more dispersed cell gaps, and well-formed pseudopodia. However, the HGC-27 cell line in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group showed specific transformation from interstitial morphological features to epithelial morphological features, with similar cell size yet with a round shape, and the cells aggregated into clusters and were in tightly connected (Fig. 3d).

Immunofluorescent staining revealed that the expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin was higher in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group than that in the inhibitor NC group. In contrast to the inhibitor NC group, the expression of the interstitial markers Vimentin and Snail in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group was decreased (Fig. 3e). In addition, Western blot analysis showed that relative to the inhibitor NC group, the expression of AHNAK and epithelial marker E-cadherin was elevated, while the expression of interstitial markers Vimentin and Snail was decreased in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group (Fig. 3f). Taken together, these results indicate that inhibition of miR-93-5p negatively regulates migration, invasion, and EMT in GC cells.

AHNAK is confirmed as a miR-93-5p target gene

In order to further understand the mechanism of miR-93-5p in GC, GC-related mRNA expression dataset GSE2685 was retrieved in the GEO database. And 546 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained from the expression dataset through differential expression analysis (Fig. 4a). Among them, 300 mRNAs were highly expressed in GC, and 246 mRNAs were poorly expressed in GC. In order to obtain the potential regulatory target genes of miR-93-5p in GC, the target gene of miR-93-5p was predicted by the TargetScan database, and the top 250 genes in the predicted website were intersected with the significantly down-regulated genes in the expression dataset GSE2685 (Fig. 4b). Two genes OPCML and AHNAK were found in the intersection.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4

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AHNAK is a target gene of miR-93-5p. a Heat map of differentially expressed mRNAs in the GSE2685 expression dataset. Abscissa indicates differential p value, and ordinate indicates logFC. Each small dot in the Figure indicates a gene, among them red indicates a gene with significantly up-regulated expression in GC, green indicates a gene with significantly down-regulated expression in GC and black indicates genes which aren’t differentially expressed. b The intersection of miR-93-5p targeting gene prediction and down-regulated gene in the GSE2685 expression dataset. The left circle indicates the prediction of the target genes in TargetScan database, the right circle indicates the down-regulated genes in the GSE2685 expression dataset, and the middle part indicates the intersection. c The binding sites of miR-93-5p to AHNAK 3′UTR and OPCML 3′UTR. d Dual luciferase reporter gene assay to verify the targeting relationship between miR-93-5p and AHNAK. e Western blot analysis to determine the expression of AHNAK in immortalized human gastric mucosal epithelial cell line and GC cell lines. f Western blot analysis to investigate the effect of miR-93-5p on AHNAK expression. Data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparison among multi-groups. The cell experiment was repeated three times. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001

Next, the biological prediction site microRNA.org was used to predict the targeting binding sites of miR-93-5p, and the results showed specific binding sites with AHNAK and OPCML (Fig. 4c). The dual luciferase reporter gene assay confirmed these interactions as the luciferase activity of AHNAK-WT in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group was increased compared to inhibitor NC, while there was no significant difference in luciferase activity of AHNAK-MUT between the miR-93-5p inhibitor group and the inhibitor NC group. However, there was no significant change in luciferase activity of OPCML-WT or OPCML-MUT between the miR-93-5p inhibitor group and the inhibitor NC group (Fig. 4d). Therefore, we concluded that OPCML is not a target gene of miR-93-5p. Instead, it is much more likely that AHNAK is a direct target gene of miR-93-5p.

In addition, relative to the human gastric epithelial cells GES-1, AHNAK expression was decreased in GC cells, which was lowest in the HGC-27 cell line (p = 0.0018) (Fig. 4e). Then, miR-93-5p inhibitor was transfected into HGC-27 cell line and the expression of AHNAK was determined by Western blot analysis, which showed that relative to the inhibitor NC group, the expression of AHNAK was significantly up-regulated in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group (p = 0.0001) (Fig. 4f). Taken together, our results indicate that miR-93-5p can directly bind to the 3′UTR of AHNAK and inhibit its expression.

miR-93-5p promotes migration and invasion of HGC-27 cells by down-regulating AHNAK expression

Transwell assay and Western blot analysis were used to investigate the role of AHNAK in HGC-27 cell migration and invasion and their interaction with miR-93-5p. In relation to the empty vector group, the migration (p = 0.0003) and invasion (p = 0.0029) abilities of HGC-27 cells were inhibited (Fig. 5a, b), and the expression of E-cadherin increased, while Vimentin and Snail was decreased (Fig. 5c) in the AHNAK group, suggesting AHNAK up-regulation is able to inhibit migration and invasion of HGC-27 cells. Similar trends were observed in HGC-27 cells in the miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK group in contrast to the miR-93-5p mimic + empty vector group (Fig. 5d–f), indicating that AHNAK up-regulation inhibited cell migration, invasion, and EMT, and miR-93-5p mimic can attenuate the inhibitory effect of AHNAK.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 5

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Up-regulation of AHNAK inhibits HGC-27 cell migration, invasion and EMT. a Transwell assay to investigate the effect of AHNAK on HGC-27 cell invasion and migration (×200). Blank group: HGC-27 cells without transfection of any plasmids; Empty vector group: HGC-27 cells transfected with empty vector; AHNAK group: HGC-27 cells transfected with AHNAK overexpression plasmid. b Quantitative analysis for the role of overexpressed AHNAK in the HGC-27 cell migration and invasion. c Western blot analysis of EMT markers E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail expression after overexpression of AHNAK. d Transwell assay of effect of miR-93-5p mimic and overexpressed AHNAK in HGC-27 cell invasion and migration (×200). Mimic NC + empty vector group: HGC-27 cells co-transfected with mimic NC and empty vector; miR-93-5p mimic + empty vector group: HGC-27 cells co-transfected with miR-93-5p mimic and empty vector; miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK group: HGC-27 cells co-transfected with co-transfected with miR-93-5p mimic and AHNAK. e Quantitative analysis for the role of overexpressed AHNAK in the HGC-27 cell migration and invasive. f western blot analysis of EMT markers E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail expression after overexpression of miR-93-5p and AHNAK. Data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparison among multi-groups. The cell experiment was repeated three times. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001

Down-regulation of miR-93-5p inhibits activation of the Wnt signaling pathway by targeting AHNAK

Few recent studies have reported the role of AHNAK in GC. However, studies have indicated that the AHNAK gene was closely related to the Wnt signaling pathway [12, 16], and the Wnt signaling pathway was suggested to be closely associated with the development of GC [17, 18]. We have shown that the AHNAK gene was a direct target gene of miR-93-5p in GC. Thus, miR-93-5p may regulate the Wnt signaling pathway via targeting the AHNAK, thereby affecting the development of GC.

Compared with the inhibitor NC group, the expression of AHNAK, Kremen and Axin2 in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group was up-regulated, and the expression of LRP5, LRP6, Wnt-1, β-catenin, and p-β-catenin were down-regulated, indicating the Wnt signaling pathway was inhibited. In relation to the empty vector group, the expression of AHNAK, Kremen and Axin2 in the AHNAK group was up-regulated, and the expression of LRP5, LRP6, Wnt-1 and β-catenin and p-β-catenin were down-regulated, suggesting the Wnt signaling pathway was blocked. Compared with the miR-93-5p mimic + empty vector group, the expression of AHNAK, Kremen and Axin2 in the miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK group was up-regulated, and the expression of LRP5, LRP6, Wnt-1 and β-catenin, and p-β-catenin were all down-regulated, suggesting the Wnt signaling Pathway was inhibited. There was no significant difference in AHNAK expression between the miR-93-5p mimic + DMSO group and the miR-93-5p mimic + DKK1 group. Versus the miR-93-5p mimic + DMSO group, Kremen and Axin2 expression was enhanced, while LRP5, LRP6, Wnt-1, β-catenin and p-β-catenin were downregulated in the miR-93-5p mimic + DKK1 group, indicating Wnt signaling pathway was suppressed (Fig. 6a).

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

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Suppression of miR-93-5p inhibits the Wnt signaling pathway by up-regulating AHNAK expression. a Western blot analysis to measure the expression of Wnt signaling pathway-related factors Wnt-1, β-catenin and p-β-catenin. b TOP/FOP flash to determine the β-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity of each group. Cells were co-transfected with TOP flash or FOP flash and Renilla plasmids for 48 h before measurement. The ratio of activity of firefly luciferase to that of Renilla luciferase was calculated. Data were measurement data and expressed as mean ± standard deviation. One-way analysis of variance was used for comparison among multi-groups. The cell experiment was repeated three times. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ****p < 0.0001

In the TOP/FOP flash luciferase assay, relative to the inhibitor NC group, β-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity in the miR-93-5p inhibitor group was inhibited. In relation to the empty vector group, the β-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity in the AHNAK group was inhibited. Furthermore, relative to the miR-93-5p mimic + empty vector group, the β-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity of the miR-93-5p mimic + AHNAK group was inhibited and returned to the level of the blank group. Similarly, the β-catenin-TCF/LEF transcriptional activity of the miR-93-5p mimic + DKK1 group was significantly inhibited compared to miR-93-5p mimic + DMSO group (Fig. 6b).

In conclusion, our data suggest that the miR-93-5p mimic can activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, while overexpression of AHNAK can inhibit the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Meanwhile, both AHNAK and DKK1 can inhibit the activation effect of miR-93-5p mimic on the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Therefore, these data demonstrated that miR-93-5p could activate the Wnt signaling pathway by downregulating AHNAK expression.

Discussion

Partly due to lack of effective biomarkers for early diagnosis, GC is most commonly diagnosed at advanced stages which results in poor prognosis [19]. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore oncogenic mechanisms underlying GC development. EMT is a process in which adherent epithelial cells are converted into migratory cells, which have been involved in the initiation of tumor metastasis [20]. A previous study has shown that miR-93-5p is closely associated with GC progression, and overexpression of miR-93-5p leads to distant metastasis and poor survival in patients with GC [9]. Yet, the molecular mechanism of miR-93-5p regulation remains unclear. The data obtained in our study revealed that overexpressed miR-93-5p promotes the EMT in GC through the activation of the Wnt signaling pathway via down-regulating AHNAK expression (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7.

Fig. 7

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The schematic diagram depicts the regulatory mechanism of miR-93-5p in GC. miR-93-5p can target AHNAK and activate the Wnt signaling pathway to promote cell migration and invasion abilities, and EMT in GC cells

In our study, GC-related differentially expressed miRNAs were screened and highly expressed miR-93-5p was identified in GC samples. It has been suggested that miR-93-5p plays an oncogenic role in multiple tumors. For example, according to a previous report, miR-93-5p is expressed highly in GC tissues and could promote the development of GC through the inactivation of the Hippo signaling pathway [21]. Besides GC, the proliferation and migration of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells can also be regulated by miR-93-5p, while up-regulation of miR-93-5p results in poor prognosis of NSCLC by binding with the 3′-untranslated region of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN and RB1 [22]. Additionally, it is suggested that AHNAK was expressed at a poor level in GC cell lines. Furthermore, targeting relationship between miR-93-5p and AHNAK was predicted by bioinformatics tools and verified by dual luciferase reporter gene assay. It has been shown that AHNAK is critical for pseudopod protrusion and tumor cell migration and invasion, and low expression of AHNAK leads to decreased actin cytoskeleton dynamics and induction of mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) [23]. Moreover, it was revealed that matrine affected gastric cancer progression by inhibiting the function of gastric cancer cells through the possible mechanism of downregulating miR-93-5p expression to enhance the downstream target gene AHNAK expression [24]. Thus, miR-93-5p is a promoter of tumorigenesis by targeting AHNAK and should be considered as a novel therapeutic target.

In addition, our study also found that overexpressed miR-93-5p could promote the EMT of GC cells by inhibiting the expression of the prototypical epithelial cell marker E-cadherin while increasing that of the interstitial markers Vimentin and Snail. It is well established that EMT is a crucial process in which epithelial cells transform to mesenchymal state, which is closely linked to the invasive and metastatic processes of cancer [25]. N-cadherin, E-cadherin, and Vimentin are EMT markers, while EMT inducers (Snail, Twist1, and Prrx1) are reported to be related to EMT in cancer [26]. However, it is interesting that MKL-1 and STAT3 can also elevate the expression of Vimentin, and meanwhile, miR-93-5p has also been reported to inhibit the expression of MKL-1 and STAT3 therefore inhibiting EMT in breast cancer [27]. The reverse effect of miR-93-5p on EMT in GC and breast cancer requires further investigation. Collectively, from the evidence above, up-regulation of miR-93-5p could promote the EMT of GC.

Another important finding is that miR-93-5p is closely associated with the development of GC by regulating the Wnt signaling pathway by targeting AHNAK. Wnt signal pathways include β-catenin–dependent canonical and noncanonical pathways. β-catenin can function in the cell–cell adhesion and in signal transduction, but can also act in conjunction with E-cadherin to form adherent junctions between epithelial cells [28]. Wnt signaling pathway plays a key role in cell proliferation, differentiation as well as migration [29]. It is also documented that Wnt signaling pathway also known as Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway since it can regulate β-catenin protein levels therefore activating the Wnt, which could regulate Frizzled-1/β-catenin signaling pathway [30]. Dysregulation of Wnt signaling is observed in various human disease including GC, which is usually associated with the development stage of human cancers [17, 18, 31, 32]. Besides miR-93-5p, other miRNAs including miR-139-5p may regulate Wnt-related factors, which could directly target the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways related Wnt-1 and suppress the expression of Wnt-1 and β-catenin [33]. The Wnt signaling pathway has been highlighted to be one of the most important signaling pathways in cancer, and the expression of Wnt/β-catenin pathway markers β-catenin and Wnt-1 can be down-regulated by AHNAK [12]. AHNAK is linked to the Wnt signaling pathway [16]. In addition, we have shown the targeting relationship between miR-93-5p and AHNAK, and thus we can conclude that up-regulation of miR-93-5p may lead to GC through activating Wnt signaling pathway via inhibiting AHNAK expression.

Conclusion

To sum up, our study shows that overexpression of miR-93-5p promotes EMT of GC by activating the Wnt signaling pathway via down-regulating AHNAK. Since the present study was conducted only in cells, its clinical implication values are still to be verified. Nevertheless, these results suggest that further understanding of the molecular mechanism of AHNAK in EMT in GC may provide promising clinical implications for the treatment of GC.

Acknowledgements

We would like show sincere appreciation to the reviewers for critical comments on this article.

Abbreviations

GC

gastric cancer

miRNAs

microRNAs

EMT

epithelial–mesenchymal transition

miR-93-5p

microRNA-93-5p

UTR

untranslated region

GEO

the gene expression omnibus

FC

log fold changed

TCGA

The Cancer Genome Atlas

AJCC

American Joint Committee on Cancer

NC

inhibitor-negative control

GAPDH

glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

BCA

bicinchoninic acid

PVDF

polyvinylidene fluoride

BSA

bovine serum albumin

UTR

untranslated region

WT

wild type

MUT

mutant type

DAPI

6-diamidino-2-phenylindole

ROC

receiver operating characteristic

DFS

disease-free survival

NSCLC

non-small cell lung cancer

MET

mesenchymal–epithelial transition

Authors’ contributions

ES, XL and XW wrote the paper and conceived and designed the experiments. ML and LZ analyzed the data. GZ and ZS collected and provided the sample for this study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81372548; Zhe Sun) and Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (No. 20180550978; Liang Zhang).

Availability of data and materials

All data and materials are fully available without restriction. The data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Consent for publication

All the authors agree to the publication clause.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Footnotes

This article has been retracted. Please see the retraction notice for more detail: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-024-03340-2

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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